Do you know what to do if a fire breaks out in your home? Or do you at least think you do?
20% of all fires are caused by human error. Besides causing a fire, it is above all the wrong behavior in case of fire that costs human lives. Situations become even more dangerous through wrong or self-endangering behavior, which unnecessarily increases the number of injured and fatalities caused by fire and smoke. The fire-brigade federation sees a strong need in teaching private people the correct behavior in fire situations. In 2019, they published a specialized recommendation, in which individual behaviors are explained.

The specialized reccomendation can be found as PDF here.

The team's solution is to present parts of the expert recommendation as scenarios that can be experienced. This should enable the user to experience dangerous situations without really putting himself in danger. The contents of the expert recommendation can be conveyed as practical rather than purely theoretical knowledge.

SYA is a training environment that is personalized by personal information in its actions and scenarios and reacts to the user's behavior.
The system consists of a questionnaire, various interaction objects and a voice user interface, which takes on the role of a trainer. In various sequences, the user is first allowed to experience the danger situation. Then, with the help of the room, he learns which behavior or actions are appropriate for the given situation.

Basically the room is suitable for all private persons. Especially by personalizing the training and offering different courses of action in the room there is a suitable scenario for each person, which could happen to them at home.

Visualisation of the training room.

Registration
First the user fills out a questionnaire. In doing so, he shares information about their life situation and everyday life. Typical questions would be whether people smoke in the household, whether they live alone or whether they use many electronic devices.
At the end of filling out this form, they will receive a chip card which serves as their "ticket" to the training room.

Training session 1
With their received card the user starts the action scenario. The Voice User Interface welcomes them and gives them a placement task. Then, the most suitable scenario runs through the personalization process. Initially, the user is not given any assistance. The first training unit is primarily intended to provide the experience. The user should realize that they do not know how to behave in an emergency to save themselves.
After exiting the unit (through the VUI), the user first leaves the room and is told what was wrong with the behavior or what action should have been taken.

Training session 2
In the second training unit, the Voice User Interface becomes a trainer that supports the user from the very beginning. After repositioning in the room and starting the fire, the VUI provides important information on behavior, the use of interaction objects in the room or whether the user is behaving correctly or incorrectly.
The second training unit is therefore, in contrast to the first unit, a knowledge mediating learning unit, in which what has been said can be directly put into practice in order to anchor it more strongly in the memory.

Interaction Items
Within the training environment, the user has various interaction objects at his disposal. One example is a converted fire extinguisher. The basic handling is the same as for a regular fire extinguisher: by operating the lever, extinguishing is made possible by the attached hose. However, in the converted version, no foam is distributed during use, but an infrared signal is sent. The system is similar to that of Laser Tag: in the room itself there will be an infrared sensor at the place of the simulated fire. If the extinguisher is used correctly (and if the extinguisher is the right means of extinguishing the fire), this fire source will be reduced, less smoke will be emitted and thus "extinguished".
The user should not only have the experience of extinguishing a fire, but should also have the opportunity to come into contact with a fire extinguisher or other extinguishing objects - also to take away the fear of using them in an emergency.